WTN: A Frankenstein of a Silvaner

Hans Wirsching Iphöfer Kalb Silvaner Spätlese trocken 2010 - 12,5% abv; c.20€; 5 g/l RS; 7 g/l acidity
This is a strange wine. It has very ripe aromas, almost tropical, yet somehow neutral (in this it follows the Alsace Sylvaner of Loew which I am more familiar with than Frankens). The surprise is the palate. It is massively concentrated. It has the fruit and weight of a hot year. But ultimately it is a Franken Frankenstein since it is a life-enforcing wine so electric that galvanism happens in my mouth's muscles. Rarely have I had such concentration and such raciness in a single wine.

Yet I am not entirely sure about the balance of the parts. I wonder if this is one of the de-acidified wines of the vintage? And one where the de-acidification didn't quite work as wanted? But anyhow, it's close enough, and it certainly kept my attention and interest through half a bottle.




A wine as weighty and ponderous - and interesting - as the book underneath it!

How went 2010 as a vintage in Franken overall? [Paging Bill Hooper . . .]

How went 2010 as a vintage in Franken overall? [Paging Bill Hooper . . .]

Otto's note could sum up the vintage for many a Franken wine. I was in Franken five or six times during the summer of 2010 (and lived 3 km from the border before we moved to the Pfalz.) Spring was cool and rainy with rather poor fruit-set. July was incredibly hot though, leading to rapid advancement of ripeness (this was helped along too by the fact that there was less fruit to ripen.) August was very, very rainy setting records for precipitation throughout much of Germany. I will remember 2010 as giving the largest chanterelle harvest of my life. The weather was perfect for mushrooms and of course, also botrytis. Very heavy selection was necessary to bring in healthy fruit, and a lot of the lower-end or higher production Silvaner or MT from Franken show very clear botrytis notes. The higher-end wines have been much less of a problem. That everything is basically vinified dry means that there wasn't the choice of covering up the botrytis with sugar. The wines of Franken also exhibit high acidity in 2010, but Silvaner is in general lower in acid than Riesling. Even so, that 7 g/l is on the low-side and I would bet that it saw at least a little deacidification.

It sounds like a delicious wine to me and I really like Wirsching. Often Franken Silvaner is almost chewy with concentration and absurdly mineral. it can also be very creamy. I've tasted with people not used to this who were expecting a lighter, more nervous wine and it throws them for a loop. The best style in my mind is that which does rely on a little more acid to help pull the fruit through to the finish. I think that Horst Sauer does this best.

I'm planning on attending the VDP Franken premiere of vintage 2011 later in the spring. 2011 was a very difficult vintage there and I'm excited to see how it turned out in bottle.

Cheers,
Bill

Thanks for that Bill!

Hi Otto -

Thank you for the very interesting note. Wish that I could find more of Wirsching's single-vineyard Silvaners around here.